THE, DRIVERS’ DISPUTE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 60

THE, DRIVERS’ DISPUTE

CONCILIATION BOARD’S RECOMMENDATIONS. ' 1 CLAUSES FOR CORPORATION EMPLOYEES. The recommendations of the Conciliation Board in the drivers’ dispute, delivered by the chairman on the 18th in the presence of the union’s and the eipiphiy'ers? representatives, are to the following effect: 1. That for drivers of aerated water and cordial vehicles, the Board recommends: (a) That drivers employed by the employers shall leave the stables foy 7 in the morning, and return to the Stables by 5 in the afternoon during the mouths from. April to October (both inclusive 1 ), and shall during the other months in the year leave the stables by ' 6 in the morning and return to the ."stables by 6 in the afternoon; except ' on Wednesdays in the months from April to October (both inclusive), when ! 'bhey' slialh : return to the stables by 1 in the afternoon. One hour shall be Billowed for breakfast and one hour for dinner tforoiighout the year, excepting on Wednesdays from April to October, when there shall be no allowance for dinner-hour, (b) The employers shall pay the drivers employed by. them at- the minimum rate of £2 5s per .week, such ?wages to be paid on the Saturday of ' each and every week, (c) Preference to •unionists, provided that they have served their time in the trade, but employers may prefer their own factory hands, and! may employ the latter in cases of emergency, (d) Only work of necessity to be done bn- Sundays, and to be paid at the rate of 2s 6d per Lour, But this payment not to include necessary attention to horses and stables, (e) Holidays ' (rune) to be paid for, but holidays to !>egin only after customers have been attended to in the mornings, employers "to make amount of necessary attendance as small as possible. * 2. With regard to drivers in the sand and gravel- business, they shall com- ' me nee work at 7 a.m. and leave work yaot'later than 6. p.m-., save on Saturdays, v r hen the. hours shall b e from 7 r u.m. to 2 p.m.; with one hour for dinner ; all employees to he paid a minimum weekly wage of £2 ss; casual hands to be paid Is per hour from 7 a.m.; all overtime to be paid for at Is an hour, any fraction of an hour to count as a. complete hour; preference fco unionists; only necessary work to he done on Sundays, and to be paid for at 2s 6d an hour; for burial of horse 7s 6d to he paid; the nine holidays stipulated to he paid for, and Is 6d an hour to be paid for compulsory work thereon ; drivers of picnic parties on holidays to receive 10s per day in addition £o their ordinary wages; weekly pay on Saturday . ; ", 3. Tramdrivers: A fifty-six hours week, exclusive of Sundays; if the City Council deems it necessary to run the trams on Sunday, drivers to be paid double rate therefor; tramdrivers’ work not to include stablework; payment for Ordinary time, lOd an hour; overtime, save on Sundays and holidays, to be paid for at rate of time and a half, payment for holidays—Christinas Day e:nd. eight consecutive days during the

year, fixed at a. time convenient- to the employer; fortnightly pay on Fridays at 4.45 p.m. ; time of commencing and of leaving work to be decided 1 by the employer. Clauses 4 to 6 inclusive provide for a weekly wage., of £2 5s for scavenging and dust-carts, £2 8s for rubbish and refuse carts. There is no provision in the recommendation as to payment of night-soil cart drivers. Other drivers employed by City Council are to be paid at the same rates as paid by private employers for similar work; with regard to drivers of dust and scavenging carts, rubbish and refuse carts, and other carts in employ of City Council, the hours, time of starting and ceasing work, meal times and pay times to be as at present. Clause 7 —Bakers: For bakers? drivers a 50 hours’ week —9 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4| on Wednesdays, B£ion Fridays, 10 on Saturdays and. on clays preceding holidays. Clauses 3 and 9 provide that 8.30 a.m. shall be the earliest hour at which a baker’s driver shall be sent out, save on Saturdays and days preceding holidays (7 a.m.); and drivers shall not he on hand more than naif an hour before the time fixed by the employer to start; same holidays and payment therefor as at present. _ Clauses 10 to 15, inclusive, provide for weekly hours as follows: —Drivers in brick yards and timber yards, 46; coaldealers drivers, retail parcel delivery, forwarding agents and carriers’ and laundrymen’s drivers, each 47-*-; ’bus drivers, 46. Clauses 16 and 17 set forth that except where other provision is made in the recommendations, drivers of lorries; vans, spring drays, carts, and expresses of two horses shall be paid a weekly minimum of £2 8s; drivers of same vehicles with one horse, £2 3s 6d. 18— Competent drivers delivering coal in bags not exceeding lewt shall receive £2 4s, and, where the bag exceeds lewt, £2 Bs. 19— Casual driver of the £2 3s 6ci standard to receive Is an hour, with proportional increase for drivers above that class. 20— Except where otherwise provided in the recommendations, overtime to he paid for at time and a quarter for first two hours, and time and a half for additional hours worked; and the next clause, subject to the same provision, sets forth a scale of part time counting as whole time, dividing the hour into quarters for the purpose and taking the five minutes period as the unit. 21— A stableman to be employed in stables containing fifteen horses or more. 22 Except where otherwise provided in the recommendations, Sunday work to be paid for at double rates, save the necessary work of looking after the horses. 23 Except where otherwise provided . in tlie recommendations, work for a customer to start at 8 a.m., or at any time between 8 and 9 a.m., as the employer may decide on, driver not to be required at stable before 7 a.m., and to leave not later than 7.45 p.m. Clauses _23 to 27, inclusive, provide that a driver, when doing duty as stableman, shall feed and water the horses at 6 a.m., which shall not be regarded as overtime, nor shall the necessary stable work after the horses’ return, in the evening he regarded as overtime, and for the purposes of this - clause 'necessary stable work is defined as feeding, watering and cleaning the horses; a driver on his return shall.-not Ire detained in the stable for more than one hour; except wher© otherwise provided in the recommendations, weekly . pay to be made on some day to be arranged, within 15 minutes of leaving work; except on the half holiday, and except in the service of the City Council, one hour for dinner to be allowed; any driver incompetent from youth, age, infirmity, or any other cause may ap- • ply for permission to work at a. lower v. age, such wage to be fixed between the union and the employers, and if they cannot agree, the Chairman of the Conciliation Board to decide; the applicant driver to be employed in the meantime as he may arrange with employer, -pending the fixing of his wage; but no drivers earning wages thus fixed shall bo .employed in a greater proportion than one to three and every fraction of three competent drivers; • 27 Conditions of ’bus drivers, save as to hours, are not affected by the recommendations, nor are drivers affected whose wages have been fixed by the Arbitration Court. 28— Holidays: Payment to be made for the nine holidays,, but Boxing Day not t-o be a holiday for laundry drivers; for compulsory! work don© on holidays, double rates to be paid', except for the work of attending to the horses; for drivers of picnic parties, 5s a day extra to the double rates. 29 Preference clause, with usual conditions. 30 — Maximum penalty of £SOO for breach of recommendations if adopted. 31— If difference arises as to the meaning of the recommendations, two unionists and two employers (directly interested parties for preference) to sit as a oommittee, with power to appoint its own chairman ;• if the committee cannot agree, the Chairman of the Conciliation Board to decide; if his reading is an-

satisfactory, the Board to give final decision. Clause 32 recommends that the settlement he in force from 22nd March, 1901, to 21st March, 1903, botfi dates inclusive.